1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to equipment for disentangling bars, particularly concrete reinforcing bars, the equipment being of the kind which comprises a plurality of relatively longitudinally spaced frames each extending at right angles to the length of the bars and each having an upwardly directed V-shaped cut-out, the V-shaped cut-outs being mutually aligned, and vertically liftable supports disposed between said frames, each support having a central portion extending vertically relative to the length of the bars and having a width which is less than the maximum width of said V-shaped cut-outs.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With such equipment (such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,362,460), it is possible to solve the problem of disentangling and singling out the bars after they have been deposited on storage beds in such a way that they can be further transported without major difficulty. Thus when the supports, which engage in a comb-like fashion between the frames of the storage beds, are lifted the whole, initially closely piled-up contents of a storage bed, are split up into three parts, namely a first quantity of bars which remains resting on the horizontal upper edges of the central portions of the supports in the lifted or raised state of the latter and the two remaining parts which slide off laterally on both sides during the lifting of the supports. By making a suitable choice in the width of the supports which depend firstly on the number of bars which are to be transported further in a given case, and secondly on the bar dimensions, it is possible to achieve the result that only a comparatively small number of concrete-reinforcing bars will remain on the central portions. Further transport from these central portions may then be obtained by equipping the latter with conveyor rollers.
However, in the course of such further transport, bars which have not been sufficiently well disentangled may still slip off the central portions of the supports and thereby adversely affect also a major portion of bars which as such have already been sufficiently disentangled for further transport. This effect may also cause bending of the bars which make subsequent handling much more difficult.